CHAPTER XXVIII 

 SEAWEED 



AND now, having come to the close of my pleasant 

 task, I would like to take the liberty of saying a 

 few words upon a subject which, while not strictly 

 within the compass of my subject, is so closely allied to 

 it that I hope I shall be forgiven for alluding to it. It 

 is about Seaweed. I cannot pretend to have made the 

 growths of the sea a matter of study, although I am 

 well aware how fascinating the subject is ; but I have 

 noticed very closely how important Seaweed is to fish, 

 and especially the fish of the Deep Sea. Not as a matter 

 of food, of course. With the exception of the manatees 

 and possibly the turtle, as far as I am aware, none 

 of the Deep-Sea People eat Seaweed, but use it for 

 purposes of shelter and breeding. 



The most important of all, as well as, I think, 

 the most wonderful, is the beautiful sea-growth known 

 to sailors as Gulfweed or Sargasso Weed, and to 

 oceanologists as Fucus natans, because it floats and 

 grows, needing no settled abiding place or root-hold. 

 It is confined to the North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, 

 and is found in greatest quantities in the vast eddy 

 formed on the eastern side of that ocean between the 

 Gulf Stream and the Equatorial Current. A whole 

 series of romances might be built upon this wonderful 

 weed-covered portion of the ocean. One or two have 

 been based on the supposition that the enormous 



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